In view to the new epochal scenarios that nanotechnology disclose, nanoelectronics has the potential to introduce a paradigm shift in electronic systems design similar to that of the transition from vacuum tubes to semiconductor devices. Since many nano-scale devices and materials exhibit their most interesting properties at radio-frequencies (RF), nanoelectronics provides an enormous and yet widely undiscovered opportunity for the microwave engineering community. The lectures presents a technical overview of some of the main research fields of nanoelectronics for RF applications, i) showing the potentialities offered by emerging nano-scale materials (e.g. carbon nanotubes, graphene), ii) highlighting novel microwave, millimeter-wave and THz devices and systems, iii) focusing on critical technologic aspects.

While the advancement of research in this area heavily depends on the progress of manufacturing technology, still, the global modeling of multi-physics phenomena at the nanoscale is crucial to its development. Modeling, in turn, provides the appropriate basis for design. The aim of this effort is to close the gap between the nanosciences and a new generation of highly integrated and multifunctional devices, circuits, and systems, for a broad range of applications and operating frequencies, up to the optical region. This aim can be achieved by using the panoplia of microwave engineering at our disposal.

In the second part of the lecture, the focus is on the investigation of the electromagnetics and quantum transport phenomena in carbon nanodevices. Full-wave techniques in the frequency (energy)- and in the time-domain for the global multi-physics modeling of new carbon-based devices are introduced. The quantum transport is described by the Schrödinger equation or its Dirac-like counterpart. In the frequency-domain, a rigorous Poisson-coherent transport equation system is provided; in the time-domain, Maxwell equations are self-consistently coupled to the Schrödinger/Dirac equations. The computational framework deals with the multi-scale nature of the coupled domains, from atomistic- through the nano-, up to the meso-scale. The final goal is the realization of efficient numerical tools, for practical use. We present results on: i) CNT/graphene field effect transistors, ii) carbon-metal transition, iii) carbon nano-antennas, iv) plasmonics propagation, v) photoconductive effects, vi) non-linear effects, vii) quantum electrodynamics. We are working toward the inclusion of thermal and mechanical aspects.

Biography of the author

Luca Pierantoni received the ‘Laurea’ degree (summa cum laude) in Electronics Engineering in 1988 and the Ph.D. degree in 1993 in Electromagnetics from the Department of Electronics and Automatics at the University of Ancona, Italy. From 1989 to 1995, he was with the Department of Electronics and Automatics of the University of Ancona, as a Research Fellow. From 1996 to 1999 he worked at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, in the Institute of High-Frequency Engineering as Senior Research Scientist. In 2000, he joined the Department of Electromagnetics at the Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy. Presently, he is with the Department of Information Technology at the Polytechnic University of Marche. His current research interests are in the investigation of the combined Maxwell-quantum transport phenomena in nano-materials/devices, the analysis of electrodynamics in nanostructures, and the development of computational techniques for the multi-physical modeling of meso- and nano-scale devices.